The Furman Advantage
Innovation is our advantage. It’s how we prepare students for lives of purpose and accelerated career and community impact.
Our students are ultra-prepared for anything. Furman graduates know how to do the work, in the classroom, and in the world.
They are disruptors and diplomats, innovative in their thinking and compassionate in their approach to career and life.
They are unique in every way.
What is The Furman Advantage?
A PERSONALIZED, FOUR-YEAR PATHWAY TO GRADUATION
HIGH-IMPACT, ENGAGED LEARNING THROUGH RESEARCH, INTERNSHIPS AND STUDY AWAY
A TEAM OF ADVISORS AND MENTORS TO HELP YOU FIND YOUR PATH
LEADING INSTITUTES AND CENTERS TO EXPLORE AND TACKLE IMPORTANT ISSUES
Ultra-prepared for Anything
Wise Beyond Their Years
Intentional acts of self-discovery lead Furman students to continually reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. They also know how to appropriately manage internal and external expectations. It’s this kind of soul-searching, life-changing work that makes them comfortable with who they are and what they want.
Deeply Committed to Connections
Driven by questions as much as answers, Furman students seek connections between individual ideas and universal themes, between small daily tasks and big picture ventures. This ability to synthesize and compare information in astonishing ways puts them in a position to take on even the most challenging jobs and projects.
Advocates for Collaboration
It’s no secret, Furman students work well with others. Collaboration is in their DNA. You see it in how they make space for other’s ideas and in how they share their own insights with confidence. They embrace community, encourage challenge, and happily share the spotlight. In addition, each student collaborates consistently with a dedicated team of advisors and mentors throughout their four years.
Completely Unstoppable
Comfortable outside their comfort zone, and masters of resiliency, Furman students love a good challenge. But even better, they welcome a good failure. Their ability to bounce back stronger, and wiser, from a mistake is what makes them so successful in their careers and respected in their communities.
Aspirations are great, but what about results?
The Furman Advantage: we know it works.
This ground-breaking, measurable approach to teaching, learning, and living combines classroom instruction with real-world experiences and self-discovery, guaranteeing every student an unparalleled education.
Employers love it, and benefit from our approach, because they know our students go beyond the superficial trappings of the college experience to engage in a personalized, integrated four-year pathway that prepares them for lives of purpose and impact.
Pathways
Pathways, a defining element of The Furman Advantage, is a two-year advising pilot program that students enter their first year in order to ease their transition to college and explore their individualized pathway. The program builds a strong foundation of academic, social and coping skills to strengthen student resilience.
Institutes of Impact
Empty promises? Not on our watch. A great example of The Furman Advantage in action is through Furman’s institutes.
Students come together to engage in hands-on, real-world experiences with academic and industry leaders, and the world around them. It’s the perfect way for students to network, learn and build stronger communities central to their passions, regardless of their academic major.
The Proof is in Our Students
How do we know The Furman Advantage works? Along the way, we carefully track and meticulously assess student, academic, and advising and mentoring successes.
We recently partnered with Gallup to assess the impact of The Furman Advantage. The key finding: our approach is working. Furman alumni exceeded the national average in Gallup’s “Big Six” college experiences. The survey also found that Furman students are 3.4 times more likely to be engaged at work and 2.9 times more likely to be thriving in wellbeing. And that’s just the beginning!
Read more about how we know The Furman Advantage is equipping our students to be innovators and contributors, community leaders and incognito achievers.
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Prospective Students or Parents
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Experience The Furman Advantage
Forge Your Path
Transforming the College Experience
Something Brought You Here
Meet a Paladin
"To be honest, I never thought about graduate school before I came to Furman. It was like, college, done. But after college, I want to achieve more, which is something Furman and Dr. Harris gave me.”
"That’s what I love so much about the English major. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, those critical-thinking skills and being able to deep dive and analyze things, no matter what it is, are so important."
"When I got the Metropolitan Fellowship, that was the key, integral thing in helping me. The (Furman Metropolitan Fellowship) guys had lots of connections to a lot of different people and a lot of great companies."
Explore The Furman Advantage
and preparation
Your first year is an opportunity to discover your skills, interests, values, identity, and goals by taking courses in a variety of different academic fields. Settle into your new environment and gain a sense of belonging while focusing on classroom learning. Build your support network by connecting with your advisor.Go to Year 2
Year two places an emphasis on inquiry and exploration. Students connect their ongoing classroom learning and conversations with advisors and mentors with the idea of an engaged learning experience. By the end, declare a major that meets your life and career goals.Go to Year 3
In the third year, use your classroom learning, reflection and support from mentors and advisors to focus your area of study. Take the initiative to seek out engaged learning opportunities such as an internship or a study away, research or community project. You will begin to apply your developing knowledge and skills to meet real-world challenges.
Go to Year 4
The fourth year is the culmination of your classroom learning, mentoring and advising, engaged learning experience. Synthesize your experiences, integrating all you have done will help you create your narrative for employers and graduate schools. Talk to your mentors. Connect with the career center and alumni. Talk to prospective employers or apply for graduate school. Take action.
In just six months of graduation, 97 percent of students are employed or in graduate school, nurturing their curiosity and living meaningful lives. You will graduate ready to achieve feats, solve problems and chase your dreams. This is The Furman Advantage.
Premier academic programs and teaching are our foundation. In small class sizes, students are taught by renowned faculty, not their assistants.
For all four years, students have access to a community of advisors and mentors who will answer and ask questions, and help guide them along their path.
Students connect work to meaningful experiences, such as research, internships, study away and community engaged learning projects.
Students are encouraged to develop habits of reflection so that they are able to make informed decisions, tell their story, and graduate confident and prepared for life beyond college.